Preliminary Findings from the Cemetery at the Medieval Ilibalyk Site in Southeast Kazakhstan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Ilibalyk (Usharal) site in southeastern Kazakhstan is the location of an ongoing excavation of a medieval (13th-14th centuries CE) Christian cemetery and settlement. Ilibalyk was located along the trans-continental trade networks often called the Silk Roads. Many trade goods from across Eurasia have been found in association with burials at Ilibalyk. This site is currently the only active excavation of a Christian necropolis in Central Asia. Earlier excavations at contemporary sites in nearby Kyrgyzstan have led to the discovery of Yersinia pestis DNA in two medieval Christian cemeteries, providing evidence of the earliest cases of the Black Death known to date. Data from Ilibalyk provides additional context to these sites and could potentially expand the geography of the Black Death into Kazakhstan. Bioarchaeological research is ongoing with the skeletal collection from Ilibalyk (n=69) to expand our understanding of the population health and lifeways of those living at the site and medieval Central Asia more broadly. This poster provides preliminary mortuary and bioarchaeological data from the site and demographic characteristics of the cemetery (images of human remains).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36706.0